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[Publisher] Amazon Kindle Scout

Vince524

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So figured I'd post an update to my Kindle Scout journey. My book, Torn Away wasn't picked. You don't get any feedback at all, which I understand.

Dear Vincent Morrone,
We want to thank you for your participation in Kindle Scout and all of the effort you have put into the submission and campaign process. Unfortunately, your book Torn Away was not selected for publication by Kindle Press. We will forward the thank you message you provided when you submitted your book to all the readers who nominated it. We wish you the best in your pursuit to publish Torn Away.

I'm sure that's standard for every one who got rejected.

I made friends with other authors who were going through this. One of them had few hours in Hot & Trending, and didn't get selected, but the other one seemed to be a staple in that category, and also didn't get selected, so really no idea what happens behind the curtain.

The email comes with a link if I want to publish through them, which is what I'm planning on at this point. Anyone who did nominate my book will get an email once it's available. I don't regret participating.
 

popgun62

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So figured I'd post an update to my Kindle Scout journey. My book, Torn Away wasn't picked. You don't get any feedback at all, which I understand.



I'm sure that's standard for every one who got rejected.

I made friends with other authors who were going through this. One of them had few hours in Hot & Trending, and didn't get selected, but the other one seemed to be a staple in that category, and also didn't get selected, so really no idea what happens behind the curtain.

The email comes with a link if I want to publish through them, which is what I'm planning on at this point. Anyone who did nominate my book will get an email once it's available. I don't regret participating.

I was surprised yours didn't get picked, Vince. I thought the cover was pretty good, the story seemed original, the writing was good - I guess it will remain the mystery. Here's hoping your sales hit the stratosphere!
 

Vince524

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I was surprised yours didn't get picked, Vince. I thought the cover was pretty good, the story seemed original, the writing was good - I guess it will remain the mystery. Here's hoping your sales hit the stratosphere!

Thank you!
 

JulianneQJohnson

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My KS campaign is on its last day. I have been active on the KBoards throughout, and made some conclusions already. I'll check back in when I hear back, but here is what I think so far. I want to stress that these are my opinions based on what I've seen. I don't have any secret knowledge from the KS editors.

Campaign stats have little to do with what gets accepted. Books with high stats get rejected and books with low stats can be accepted. The nominations have a different purpose. They generate a reader base for advance copies to generate reviews before the book is released.

Hot and Trending is not all about number of nominations. Time spent on page, ratings, and comments make a huge difference. I had one day when I only had 22 page views, but stayed H&T all 24 hours. This was after I got my old fanfic readers involved in the campaign. They are likely to read the entire excerpt and make comments, whereas friends and family on facebook are likely to hit the nomination button and leave. Quality of nominations matters more than quantity.

As for how editors make selections, I think it is like any publisher anywhere. One book I nominated that was not selected surprised me. It was very well written and engaging, but perhaps it was too similar to another project already accepted. Or perhaps they needed no more books in that genre at that time. Hard to tell. Publishers have criteria to follow other than good writing.

I read a ton of campaigns through the month. Even when my nominations were full, I wanted to see what was out there. Many books not selected were, in my opinion, not ready for publication. Some were getting there, making me feel that if the authors had a couple more books under their belt, they would have a better chance. Of the books not selected, one read like a bad translation into English, one used words that did not mean what they thought, several did not have strong voice, and several had characters that all sounded the same. There were also some that began with info dumping or character study.

I would have to say that submitting to Kindle Scout is like submitting to any other publisher. Nothing about it makes it easier, or gives you a better chance. A successful campaign and self promotion won't get a subpar book published. I do believe that all books submitted get eyes on them, which is nothing to sniff at, but you will not get feedback. If you are going to throw your hat in the ring, same rules apply as anywhere else. Polish it until it shines, get some crit, get some editing, get a decent cover, and write a better description than I did.

Once again, these are no more than opinions I have drawn through my experience. I'll be back in 7-12 days to cheer or cry, and tell you my campaign stats.
 

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Thanks, Julianne, I couldn't find your campaign. Is it on its last day or over? Given your wonderful insight, I'd say you stand a great chance of being selected. :) Good luck!
 

JulianneQJohnson

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Jack, my campaign just finished, which is why you can't find it with a search. I don't know if Descending will be chosen for publication or not, but I've learned tons about the process. My next effort will be a better effort.

I know some folks in the thread don't see the point of KS. My feeling is that it's a good opportunity for unpublished and unagented writers. If one is doing well with other publishing methods, there's not any point to trying KS. However, for someone like me who is unpublished and trying to build writing credits, it's not a bad deal. The advance is modest, but many smaller publishers have no advance at all. KS asks for digital and audio rights, but one can publish the paperback themselves. Folks who were selected that usually self published routinely commented that they made more money through KS than they usually did on their own. This might not be true for folks who are very successful at self publishing, of course, but having the exposure and promotion of Kindle Publishing would certainly help a writer who is having only modest success on their own. Just my opinion, of course. I'm not expert at any of this.
 

JulianneQJohnson

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My book was not selected. I plan to give it another go with a different book at some point.

I found out the results four days after my campaign closed.
My final stats were 255 hours on Hot and trending, 980 page views, with a 50/50 split internal to external links.
 

msuss

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It's been several months since this thread was last active, but I'm wondering whether anyone else ran a Kindle Scout campaign and how it went. If you won a contract, are you happy with the results? If the KS folks passed on your manuscript, did you self-publish?

My novel, INCOGNOLIO, received some rave reviews from several agents I queried, but nary a one of them was willing to take a gamble on it because they considered the novel to be too quirky, edgy, or unconventional for the mainstream market. My own agent wasn't an option since she does not rep adult fiction.

So I felt I had nothing to lose by entering the manuscript in the Kindle Scout contest, although I did have to shell out a considerable sum for what turned out to be the perfect cover for my quirky novel. Now I'm thirteen days into a 30-day campaign that has so far been quite nerve-racking but has forced me to learn more about social media and promotion.

The first six days were exhilarating, as INCOGNOLIO remained nearly continuously on the all-important Hot & Trending list. Then, as is apparently typical after the first week, it dropped entirely off the list. As new entries are introduced each day and others reach their final three days, those titles are featured prominently, leaving little room on the H&T for entries that are slogging through the long middle portion of a campaign.

My feeling at this point is that KS is a win-win proposition for a manuscript that is not getting picked up by agents or small presses. If my novel is selected, I'll receive a reasonable contract from Kindle Press and some degree of promotion by Amazon. Some past winners of the competition report receiving little or no editing, but that is a moot point for me since I've worked with three freelance editors along the way, and my ms. is highly polished.

If, as is more likely, I don't win a contract, then I will go on to self-publish--but with some clear advantages. I've already got a great cover. My novel has received a good deal of exposure: 1.4K page views as of today, with 17 days left to go. And as soon as I make my novel available on Amazon, Kindle Scout will automatically send out emails to everyone who nominated my entry, informing them that the book is available and providing them with the link. That could mean several hundred folks who may well buy the novel & possibly post reviews.

What do others think?
 

Vince524

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I did Kindle Scout with my book, but they didn't take it. It's hard to stay in that hot and trending if you're not on that front page of the KS page. So new ones get in, ones on their last day too. If fact, a lot of people just look at the ones in the final days so they can nominate and not tie up their 3 slots for long.

I did self pub, but I didn't get much of a boost from KS. If your book is not selected, they send out notice that it's available, but that's it. A lot of people nominate it because if it won, they'd get it for free.

I pulled it from self publishing and I landed a contract for it with a publisher.

That being said, if you win, it's definitely a plus as Amazon will give you more visibility.

And if you don't, it doesn't hurt to get that publicity boom at the beginning. I may try it again later with another novel that doesn't fit with my new publisher.
 

JulianneQJohnson

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I just finished my 4th Kindle Scout campaign with my book, Nick of Time.
I'm getting better at it. As someone who only began self publishing this past January, I like KS as a way to get more eyes on your books. I do not have a promotion budget yet, so anything that gets eyes on it is awesome.

My stats were much better than my earlier campaigns. I ended with 3.8k page views and 678 hours in the Hot and Trending list out of 720. That was H&T 24 hours a day every day except 3.

It is absolutely possible to have a campaign that stays H&T more than just the beginning and end of the campaign. You also don't have to spend hundreds of bucks, as some campaigners do, to manage it. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, some folks expect not to be selected, and promote the campaign to get more eyes on at launch. Me, when I have any money to spend, I'd rather spend it at launch. It's a matter of personal preference.) I spent a grand total of $15 on my campaign. 10 for an Author Shout gig, and 5 for a Readper mention. Both were very effective for the low price tag. My newsletter subscribers were awesome, and that made a big difference.

This time around, I have promised nominators a free copy of the book regardless of selection, and that made a huge difference. When I publish it (Selection would be great, but I'm not counting on it) I will schedule two free days right away for folks who nominated.

I'll check back in when I hear news, but wait times have been slow lately.

If anyone is considering a KS run, do check out the KS thread on Kboards under Writer's Cafe. Very helpful. I also recommend Lincoln Cole's ebook on it, and his blog. You can find him in the Kboards thread.
 
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RWrites

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What you don't get:

Editing, copyediting, or proofreading
No cover art or cover design
No additional advance for foreign rights or audio books

Other red flags:

5-year contract
Amazon reserves the right to stop publishing you without any notice
Contract is non-negotiable. By submitting, you automatically agree to its terms.
If your book is selected, the contract goes into effect *immediately*
It's unclear if you get any marketing at all

Yikes, you get nothing(no editing,etc) and stuck to a contract for 5 years? This is scary and I'm surprised this even legal! You are doing everything by yourself and the only thing you have is Amazon publishing your book and little extras. No thanks!
 

Vince524

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Sorry for the delay. I had to take it down, of course, but since they get first shot at the sequels, they were okay with it. My editor really, really liked it.
 

augusto

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Tried Kindle Scout in late 2015. Didn't get “Hot” till the last day and didn't get picked up for publication. The only thing I noticed was a significant increase in pages read through Kindle Unlimited for all my books—not just the Scout submission. Maybe Scout nominators are also Unlimited readers.


I just started a new campaign with my latest, The Cary Grant Sanatorium and Playhouse. Check it out here, if you would. Thanks!

Also, what is this "practical experience FTW" under my name? I didn't put it there. And what does FTW mean in this case?
 
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DreamWeaver

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If you put your own tag there, it'll take the place of the automatically generated one.
 

Dallionz

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It's been interesting reading through all of this. I have a Kindle Scout campaign going on now, and I have an author friend who recently got a contract through them for one of her books and it's doing wonderfully. I'm hopeful this one will get picked up. I figure it's a good way to reach more Amazon readers.